Hopeless Wanderer
by Invictus2013
Summary: After Doomsday, Rose Tyler is plagued with horrific nightmares and mysterious people speaking to her. When she notices the stars going out these people visit her and tell her that she has to bridge the gap between universe, but who are they and can they help her find the doctor again?
1. Prologue

Prologue

"_You heard my voice, I came out of the woods by choice"_

_- 'Hopeless Wanderer' Mumford and Sons_

"I guess this is fitting, Tony. Friday night and it's you and me here together at midnight," Rose mused as she held the toddler on her hip as she stood in front of the large bay windows of the Tyler Mansion. "Haven't had much of a life myself these past few years."

It was a true statement of fact, Rose sighed to herself. The past three years were complete chaos from the minute she was left standing in Torchwood Tower in Pete's World as the Doctor had called this reality. Chaos was her life now. As soon as they she had spoken with the Doctor last on Bad Wolf Bay in Norway her adventure truly began. Since then she was announced to the world as Pete Tyler's long lost daughter and heiress to the Vitex fortune. It wasn't much later though that both she and Mickey sought out Torchwood and began working there.

_Where else would a person who has traveled the universes work?_ Rose scoffed looking up at the stars as Tony rested his head on her shoulder looking out himself. She and Mickey worked on a team together with a number of others to handle all alien contact on parallel Earth in addition to dealing with any conflict that may arise. Rose found herself turning into a soldier more than when she had even run with the Doctor. Initially Pete had protested at the idea of his newfound daughter running around and combating aliens but after he began to oversee Torchwood and a group of aliens came in raising hell Rose had stepped in and with two sentences averted full on war by managing to calm the group down. Seeing how much Rose had actually picked up and learned in her travels, Pete had no choice but to let her join in and start working as an agent for the ever growing Torchwood.

This happened to be one of the few weekends she had decided to take off after a particular horrid encounter with a few rogue Racnoss in the sewer system. That whole mission had left Rose completely exhausted and ready to just sit down with a nice cuppa and a warm bath. Her mother however had other plans. The minute her mother had seen an opportunity to take a night to herself and Pete however she had begged her daughter to watch little Tony and so here they were. Rose couldn't complain in the end to a calm night of hanging with a two year old however oxymoronic that sounded. Tony was a great kid to be around however. He was hyper as any two year old could be, but what Rose loved most about her little brother was the wonder that he had about everything and anything. Rose would spend hours just sitting and talking and telling stories of the stars to her brother who soaked it all in before asking for more. He was definitely a way to keep her grounded in all of the craziness of her job.

"There are thousands of worlds out there Tony," Rose explained to her younger brother with a small smile on her face, memories flying through her head faster than she could rationally process and bringing emotions to the forefront. "I've seen so many of them and maybe someday soon you will too. I traveled with this man you see, a crazed man in a beautiful blue box that traveled through all of space and time."

Rose continued on telling Tony stories of how she had met her first Doctor who was all blue eyes and leather, stealing her heart and changing her life with the simple statement of 'run.' Slowly as her stories continued on she noted that Tony was starting to finally drift on her shoulder. She turned her head gently kissing the top of his head as she held him tight looking up at the stars. She relished in the fact that the stars were mostly the same here in this reality; there was some sort of comfort in being able to look up into the black sky and see the same stars and constellations that she had known her whole life with new ones added in. In her mind she envisioned all the planets she had visited, all the lives she had watched the Doctor save, and silently wondered how many of them were still safe and secure. Unfortunately she would never know without a way to travel into the stars.

When she felt Tony's breathing finally even out as his tiny hand clutched at her shirt, Rose allowed herself to relax and the tear to finally fall from the corner of her eye. Three years and she hadn't heard from the Doctor. '_I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye,'_ he had said to her on that beach. Maybe things weren't just meant to be. Since her arrival, Rose had taken to finding all the differences between this world and her own. The one main difference she had discovered but loved were the new constellations that filled the sky. Mixed in with the fierce warrior Orion and the Great Bear of Ursa Major were others stories of samurais and tales she once regarded as bedtime stories appeared in the stars. Her favorite she had discovered were two clusters of stars that appeared overhead that represented Little Red Riding Hood and the Big, Bad Wolf. It seemed almost fitting that she found the most beauty in the cluster of stars that made up the wolf.

Ever since she had looked into the Time Vortex and become the Bad Wolf, her life had changed. The Doctor had hated to talk about him taking the Vortex from her and as a result having to regenerate, but Rose remembered enough to be able to piece it all together. She still had dreams of that day that haunted her at night, even more so since coming to this reality. The past few weeks her dreams had changed though. She had been in the field with her team tracking down a loose Silurian in the forests of Germany at the request of their government when Rose had her first nightmare. After that she had limited the amount of sleep, choosing to take longer shifts at watch enabling the others to sleep while they were hunting. Now that she was at home she was exhausted, but Tony wanted to stay up late it seemed. Rose wasn't complaining at all. The nightmares, these dreams were completely and utterly haunting. They made no sense and were just tearing her head apart.

Rose kissed Tony's head once more and made to turn towards the stairs so she could put him down when she noticed something strange. She looked up at the Wolf in the sky and noticed that it was different. The two stars at the end of the tail just disappeared. Rose looked at the sky closer until she shook her head. It had to be clouds or the sunlight or even her lack of sleep. She had to be imagining it; stars just didn't disappear normally. Rose watched a short time longer before she turned away. Enough of that nonsense. She couldn't really trust herself at the moment when she was running on as little sleep as she was at that moment.

Quietly she carried her little brother up the stairs to his bedroom where she set him down for the night. Watching him sleep in the dim light of his solar system mobile, Rose felt a brief pang of regret. She doubted she would ever have a normal life after meeting the Doctor. Rose turned and looked at the ceiling littered with the stick on glow-in-the-dark stars which she had silently named herself as she was arranging them in anticipation for baby Tony. Rose's life was anything but normal now as she worked for Torchwood but she found herself settling which scared her even more. There had to be something that she could do that would change this lull that her life was forced into ever sense she was stuck in this universe.

Someday she would see the stars once more. Someday she would defy the laws of physics and universe and see her Doctor again because nothing is impossible. _Someday…_


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One

"_Shelter also gave their shade_

_But in the dark I have no name."_

_- 'Hopeless Wanderer' Mumford and Sons_

It was chaos; a cacophony of colors, sounds, even smells that Rose could make no sense of as she fought to keep her head from spinning completely. She heard screams of pain, screams of horror, pleading from people asking for some savior to rescue them, and mixed in with all the helplessness were the sounds of evil laughter enjoying destruction, weaponry tearing apart at flesh and machinery, and demands for total surrender. None of the sounds lasted long enough for Rose to understand what was truly going on before new images of despair and horror flashed forward leaving her clawing for some escape from this hell. There was no consistent theme in these images beyond just suffering.

For weeks she had been plagued with these nightmares where Rose would watch people die and no one was spared. Images of children crying made her want to throw up at the idea that Tony could possibly suffer like they were. She watched as a darkness pushed and moved enveloping them all. No matter what she did she could never just wake up and instead she had to wait for the end. Luckily she always she knew it was coming to an end as she heard a voice speak as he always did.

_Soon My Wolf, soon enough you will understand. It's almost time._ With that last word, Rose shot up from where she was tangled in sheets and blankets on her bed at the Tyler Estate. Blood racing, sweat covering her body, and sheer panic sending adrenaline throughout her system, Rose turned to the clock beside her bed to find it was only five-thirty in the morning. She had only gotten Tony to bed four hours ago after he had awoken in the night. Letting herself flop back against the pillows once more Rose sighed heavily, staring up at the ceiling. The images constantly changed, but the voice was always the same; calling her his wolf as though it was her name. Immediately Rose was always thrown back to the idea of the Bad Wolf; words scattered through time that led her back to save her Doctor from impending doom. That one concept and idea spurned from taking in the Time Vortex and unfortunately leading to the Doctor's regeneration in order to save her.

_Blimey, I need a shower,_ Rose groaned as she began feeling the soaked sheets and shirt on her skin. Maybe a hot shower could help her clear her head from all this nonsense that these dreams always managed to spurn. She silently wondered whether she needed to take a break from work, dealing with all the alien nonsense in this parallel world; perhaps the constant reminder of what could have been and what now will never be was putting a bigger strain on her than she realized. Rose knew her mother wouldn't complain about her hanging around the mansion for a while for some bonding time rather than retiring to her flat outside of town. In fact, the more Rose thought over the idea the better it sounded with every passing minute. A calm opportunity to catch up on sleep should never be passed on…

"We have waited long enough. It is time to contact her and begin to set the events in motion before the damage is too severe," a woman stated firmly, her speech pattern exact in every word she said as though it were the eternal truth of life.

It had been quite some time since these six had last come together. Unfortunately the current risk associated with the entirety of reality as a whole was too great for them to ignore. The fabric of many universes were beginning to crumble creating a wide expanse of darkness across time and space itself. With the Universe facing such extreme peril, it seems fate had called the Guardians of Time together once more to take action in order to ensure the survival of existence itself. So here they sat in some semblance of existence: the White Guardian representing light and order, the Black Guardian representing darkness and chaos, the Crystal Guardian representing dream and fantasy, the Red Guardian representing justice and truth, the Azure Guardian representing equilibrium and balance, and finally, the Gold Guardian representing life and death itself. Together these six transcendental beings monitored all of time, acting only in extreme situations calling for their intervention as a whole; never hesitating to step forward and choose a Champion to act for their cause as they were about to do once more.

In one seat White sits cool, calm, and relaxed as he sits back in his seat merely observing the others. His right hand resting casually on the handle of a beautifully hand-crafted cane from the strong and long lasting Everwood trees of the Gamma Forests. His suit reflected not only his personality but his position as well; classically styled and white in color matching the facial hair in a perfectly styled goatee to perfect his image.

Across from him sat his opposite; his counterpart in everything that he stands for as the light. The Black Guardian wears his role on his face clear as ever; his expression as dark as the darkness and chaos that he stands for. His black suit and deep red tie and vest underneath are tightly tailored to his slim figure as his lines are as crisp and clear as the finely manicured and trimmed facial hair. Darkness isn't something he merely wears, but fills and emanates from him; permeating into the surrounding air and tending to drive those away from the impending pandemonium that is likely to result.

Red sat beside Black completely unfazed by his persona it seemed. In typically assumed role for justice throughout the ages she wore a robe that was maroon in color and hung from her body gracefully as her stature and tone while speaking conveying her power in the one thing that many lacked: truth. Her features were relatively plain and simple, yet still managing to come across as quite elegant. Long brown hair came down in strands to be braided and fall along one of her shoulders as she simply looked to her peers for a response.

Next to her sat the man who had strayed from his position more frequently than not as he got involved in the affairs of many and even crossed the Doctor's timeline far more times than he should have; Crystal who was known to the Doctor not as a true guardian but as the Celestial Toymaker using his powers of controlling dreams and fantasy to present individuals with a slew of imagined opportunity. They had met a few times before in the Doctor's earlier days, but since then Crystal managed to stop with his mingling and meddling in affairs; choosing to work more along the lines of his counterparts as he was meant to do.

The two remaining members, Gold and Azure, filled the remaining two seats at the table each wearing fitting attire for their position as well. Gold sat upright as her hair glistened in its own honey golden color itself. She wore a long white evening gown with a gold belt around it to match the jewelry she was so famous for loving and adoring. While she didn't quite wear her emotions or expressions on her sleeve, one could always tell when Gold would feel passionate on some topic or another as her eyes would blaze gold and her hair would shine and illuminate the area. It was almost reminiscent of the time vortex itself. Something their Wolf was quite aware of.

Azure on the other hand was dressed the most human of them all which was something the others, especially Black, would continuously comment on. He wore a suit like the others but was a simple blue with grey pinstripes with a bowler hat and pocket watch as suspenders adorned his suit looking ever the 1920's banker. He had always appreciated those times; 'simpler' he had called them where people appreciated elegance for what it was. More often than not he could be found sitting in a large leather chair in a smoke filled bar sipping on cognac and enjoying the smell of the cigars around him.

"It is still too soon," Red stated firmly. "We have to give them time to figure it out themselves."

"Even if the humans or the Wolf finds out that there is something to the stars disappearing, it is unlikely that she will even be able to realize that there is something grander at risk. How can a simple human know that the walls of reality are collapsing based on a few stars disappearing?" Black mocked with a scoff.

"As much as it pains me to say this," White sighed, his hand rocking his cane back and forth as his face was drawn tight in a near scowl, "he is correct. Even if she does discover the connection along with the others it will hurt everyone in the long run as it will take them time to develop the technology to even breach the void. We must make contact to start placing the Wolf on the right trail."

Azure leaned forward contemplating the words spoken by his peers as he slightly inclined his head, "There is a reasoning to both sides of the argument. However I am inclined to agree that contact should be made. We must be certain that it is carried out in the proper manner. The Wolf must not be told too much too soon."

"Then if the contact must be made," Red acquiesced reluctantly, "it should be done by no one other than you Azure. You can be the one to ensure the line is not crossed."

Crystal nodded, "What method will we utilize then? Conventional tricks won't work as we used to rely on in order to contact the Doctor in his older forms. I recommend we continue to speak to her in the dreamscape."

"And so it shall be done," Gold smiled. "We will make contact."

The nightmares continued to the point where Rose finally gave up on attempting to sleep. She would down caffeine with the goal of not having to go to sleep that night and just continued to put her effort more in her work. However while out on a mission with her team to try and track down an alien that was loose and killing people's pets, it finally hit her as she was walking down an alley behind Jake and stumbled down to a knee. She blinked a few times trying to clear the haze that appeared suddenly as her heart raced so fast she could feel her pulse racing beneath her skin.

"Oy, you alright?" Mickey asked from behind her worried.

Rose swallowed hard as she tried to keep her head from swimming as she opened her mouth to answer that she was fine but the words wouldn't come out. She looked up at Mickey and in that moment Jake was on the radio calling for the second team to continue pursuit. What they saw in her eyes was sending them into complete worry mode as Rose's eyes were glazed over and wide, her skin starting to drain of color and making her as pale as a ghost. Something was definitely wrong.

"Come on," Mickey said as he shouldered his gun before he bent down picking Rose up to her feet before swinging her arm around his shoulders. "We need to get you back to the car."

Rose couldn't argue as the sights around her started to fade into just a blaze of colors, like the ones that haunted her dreams. She heard the screams start in side her head, flashes of light as weapon blasts were fired at people that were only visible in her head while Mickey and Jake moved her to the truck where they instantly started driving back towards Torchwood. In the back Rose stared up at the ceiling willing herself not to fall asleep, but as her eyes drifted closed she saw the images flying forward.

_Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep_, Rose mentally chanted, but soon enough her body was relaxing as she fell into unconsciousness and it was enough to make Rose whimper as she did so. At that sound Mickey and Jake exchanged a look via the rear view mirror and both were wearing the same panicked expression.

This was definitely not good. Pete and Jackie were going to kill them.


End file.
